Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: 90s

What to Think About Diablo 1?

Posted on by Viljami

Diablo 1 was a real game changer when it was first released back in 1996. We saw a PC version and the game was also ported to Sony PlayStation 1. Diablo has been topical and we have seen lately games like Diablo II Resurrected and Diablo IV. After the first original game we saw a sequel, Diablo II, in 2000. This game was almost insanely good and it was the game that made me addicted to not only action-RPGs but to playing video games generally.

We saw also a third game back in 2012. After a long while Blizzard was able to bring fans a decent addition to Diablo games. As I already stated Diablo had these more recent games getting released lately. We have to add this one game to the list of Diablo games. That game is Diablo Immortal. I haven’t palyed that game at all but I heard it wasn’t actually up to these high standards that this series actually has.

I did play the first Diablo game with my PS1 back in the end of 1990s. You might think about that featured image I have attached to this blog post. This is the actual copy that I have bought several years ago from a flee market. I remember that it was ridiculously cheap. I think I bought it for one euro or something like that.

“How do you get this game installed?”, one might ask. If you don’t have, and few of us gamers actually do, an optical disc drive (CD/DVD/Bluray) in your PC setup you are going to need an external DVD drive. I have actually two of them. One is also compatible with Bluray media. I wasn’t able to rip PS3 games with this device but for installing Diablo 1 it is actually sufficient.

You can at first install the game as is usual. If you don’t want to use the disc every time you launch the game you can just apply a patch for the game to function without a disc. There are some procedures and you can find help online. I had to copy a huge part of the game to my hard drive and also apply some patches. After that the runs pretty well.

What is it like to play a game like Diablo 1 that has been released almost 30 years ago. The game feels pretty nice to me. Graphics are a bit outdated as you would suspect. The actual game play feels nice. I only played it with mouse and keyboard and found it very much functional. First you get to create your character. There are some character classes like “Warrior”, “Rogue” and “Sorcerer”. I went with the Warrior since I very much like the melee action that Diablo delivers.

It can take up to 14 hours to complete Diablo 1. I have to be honest and tell you that this time I only played this game for some hours. The point still is that Diablo 1 is still relevant as a game. The impact it had on the role playing genre of computer and video games is huge. Think something like Sega Mega Drive’s NHL 94 with some role playing elements added to the mix and you surely get the point here. I definitely recommend Diablo 1 if you are into retro games and/or gaming history. This game is very significant to wholeness of video games and it brought us many elements actually the first time for us gamers to enjoy.

You can actually buy Diablo 1 as a digital copy if you don’t have the physical one which can be hard to find. Just look from “GOG dot com” or “Battle dot net”. It does cost you (on Battle net) ten dollars. That’s a cheap price. If you are lucky you might find it somewhere as a CD ROM. I don’t think that you can buy it for as cheap price as I did as I mentioned earlier in this blog post. I was very lucky.

Tenchu

Posted on by Viljami

I think many of us old school gamers and maybe some retro game enthusiasts do recognize Tenchu. It was released for PS1 back in 1998. I can clearly remember these moments back in the day when I saw some footage from actual television about Tenchu. What made it interesting as a PS1 video game was that you were mainly using a sword as a weapon. The fact that this game was a stealth game more than just a simple action melee game that we saw many times in the mainstream of video gaming during the 90s. So, Tenchu was something different.

I do have played this. Not recently but it hasn’t been many years since I last time played the first Tenchu game. There have been several sequels. In actually had to search for some information. There have been at least thirteen games with some relevance to Tenchu. Tenchu 2 was released for PS1 in 2000. There were games released for PS2 and also to PSP. The latest in this series that I have played is Tenchu – Wrath of Heaven that was for PS2. I think it isn’t a bad way to start getting into this ninja combat series by playing the first Tenchu game on  a PS1.

The game did impress back in 1998 and it is still a very nice game to play even today. Maybe you have to have a certain retro type of attitude to actually enjoy this game. If we make a comparison to modern era there could be some improvements on the controls and graphics. So there is some adjusting in this sense. If you do like PS1 games I recommend this game especially.

So, what is the game all about? You try to move around in this three-dimensional environment and avoid enemies. If you get caught the enemies will call help and you usually end up  fighting too many enemies and you eventually end up dead. So, avoiding contact seems to be a working strategy. Also, when you encounter an enemy that hasn’t yet noticed you you can take that person out with only one stealth attack. If the enemy detects you the enemy will call help and you end up in a difficult fight.

You can use a grappling hook to move to for example up to some roof of a house. You use a sword to defeat your enemies. You also use throwing weapons try to take out enemies. Ther weapon, the sword I mean, is a melee weapon. This gives you a different feel of combat than if there were some ranged fire weapons used. The concept hasn’t been used in my opinion so much. Instead there are tons of shooting games available as retro and also as modern games. I think the idea of Tenchu is very good and original. Being that it is a game from 1998 makes it even more inventive as a video game. It was somewhat a pioneer as a three dimensional sword and melee fighting game.

Financially Tenchu was very successful in Japan and also all around the world in Europe and USA. It sold over 1,4 million copies worldwide. It was also successful as well appreciated game and received good grades in different reviews of gaming media of the time. Actually this many times meant magazines that were printed on paper. That was the method that was used back in the day. The gaming media wasn’t yet so strong on the internet. This particular fact has changed since Tenchu was first released.

Tenchu isn’t a pricey game to pick up. If you do find it from game shop I think it can be bought with a price tag of maybe 20 euros. I haven’t seen a copy available in a long time but that price of twenty euros was the price that I bought it for. It was one of my favorite games back in the 90s. It was also among the first games I wanted to own as I started collecting and buying PS1 games to my collection again about seven or eight years ago.

Nostalgia With Mega Drive

Posted on by Viljami

I found a good way to feel some nostalgia with Mega Drive. I bought this game collection that has over 50 Mega Drive games. It cost me something around 20 to 30 euros. It is actually a “code-in-a-box” game this time. You can probably very easily tell if this collection is available as a digital copy. I don’t have a clue about that. I actually accidentally bought this version of this collection. Anyways this product is available also for other modern gaming devices. I have seen recently this available for Xbox Series X for 20 euros for a used and physical copy.

This seems to me like a bargain. I mean in the same package you get three Phantasy Star games, several Sonic titles and some games like Golden Axe and Streets of Rage not forgetting to mention a game like Kid Chameleon. There are so many good games in this collection. Even if you are just barely familiar with Mega Drive I can still recommend this collection for you.

If you think that you would buy each of these over 50 games separately I think many of us video game hobbyists would end up in bankruptcy. Phantasy Star II alone costs over 100 euros. The price tag for this collection would probably have four numerals. So, the point here is, they haven’t scant with this one a bit. These are definitely all good games. It would be hard to try to figure what game would be missing. Well, I did just come up with one game that’s missing and that game is Splatterhouse II. Splatterhouse III is also a good game and its not included in this collection.

The way I feel nostalgia while playing this game collections games is very clear. I did own a Mega Drive back in the first half of 1990s. Sonic The Hedgehog was the first game I played on this system. There is something so magical when I hear the music of this game. Take also for example the music of Streets of Rage II. What 16-bit game does have a better soundtrack? I think you are going to have hard time figuring that out.

What is so interesting about the audio side of the technology of Mega Drive gaming console seems to me the fact that it was actually a sound that was not CD quality. Sony achieved CD quality later but Mega Drive did this with its hardware and set the bar for Nintendo that also released a 16-bit console Super Nintendo. I think for a while Mega Drive was the leader when it comes to audio side of video games. We are talking about real history here. CD quality audio might seem as constant but you have to think hoe the technology was back then. Even PC didn’t have such a good audio quality back then. Of course Mega Drive gave some hard time for Nintendo that had to compete for several years with its 8-bit system NES.

I do recommend this Mega Drive collection for you. The price is very cheap. Also you get to see this cool virtual environment inside the menu of this collection. This is very cool feature. Some games, like for example, Phantasy Star II, that has already been mentioned in this blog post, might be games that you wouldn’t want to spend several tens of hours playing. These are retro games after all. I think if you totally hate retro games you have to consider if you really want to buy this. Modern games do have usually an overall better game design. This is because the industry has been developing several tens of years since we witnessed Mega Drive or anything like it.